The Church of
England is
infected with
institutional
racism and is
still a place
of "pain" for
many black
Anglicans,
according to
its first
black
archbishop.

Dr John
Sentamu, the
Archbishop-designate
of York, has
used the
foreword of a
new book
implicitly to
criticise
fellow Church
leaders for
failing to
deal properly
with
discrimination
in the
organisation.

They signal
his intention
to place
racism at the
heart of his
agenda in
office and
will reopen
soul-searching
over one of
the Church's
most sensitive
issues.

Another black
bishop, the
Bishop of
Rochester, the
Rt Rev Michael
Nazir-Ali,
complained of
racism
when an
unnamed cleric
dubbed him a
"Paki papist"
while the
Church was
selecting a
successor to
Dr George
Carey at
Canterbury in
2002.

The book to
which Dr
Sentamu has
contributed,
Rejection,
Resistance and
Resurrection,
Speaking out
on racism in
the Church, is
a hard-hitting
account of the
rejection felt
by many black
Anglicans.

Written by
Mukti Barton,
the adviser on
black and
Asian
ministries to
the Bishop of
Birmingham, Dr
Sentamu's
present post,
it describes
racism as a
"deadly
poison" often
unconsciously
spread by
white
Christians.

It also claims
that black
people are
significantly
under
represented in
the clergy,
even in the
diocese of
Birmingham.

Dr Sentamu,
who is to
launch the
book in
Birmingham
cathedral next
month, said in
the foreword:
"The stories
in this book
speak of the
pain of what
it is to
undergo
institutional
racism.

"The cost is
in terms of
the lives of
people who are
hampered in
their growth
into the image
of God created
in them."

Quoting the
inquiry
report, he
said that
institutional
racism
persisted in
organisations
because of
their failure
"openly and
adequately to
recognise and
address its
existence and
causes by
policy,
example and
leadership".
The
archbishop-elect,
whose
promotion was
announced in
June, said
that
institutional
racism was
found in all
the Churches
to some
degree.

He added,
however, that
there were
signs of
encouragement
for the
future, and
various
anti-racism
programmes had
been
effective.

The former
Ugandan high
court judge
who fled the
regime of Idi
Amin to become
Bishop of
Birmingham has
been an
outspoken
scourge of
racism for
decades.

He first
accused the
Church of
institutional
racism the
previous year,
when he said
in a General
Synod on the
Stephen
Lawrence
Inquiry report
that the
Church
suffered from
many of the
same sins as
the police.

The then
Archbishops of
Canterbury and
York, Dr
George and Dr
David Hope
respectively,
subsequently
attended a
"racism-awareness
course".